{"id":4229,"date":"2022-04-26T22:26:51","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T20:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/?p=4229"},"modified":"2022-04-28T05:34:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T03:34:08","slug":"chef-avi-barak-panama-continues-to-be-a-melting-pot-of-races-and-the-reflection-is-in-its-gastronomic-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/2022\/04\/26\/chef-avi-barak-panama-continues-to-be-a-melting-pot-of-races-and-the-reflection-is-in-its-gastronomic-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Avi Barak: Panama Continues to be a Melting Pot of Races and the Reflection is in its Gastronomic Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Among the local chefs with the most\ninternational experience possessing great versatility in creating the most\nvaried seasons, homemade recipes, mixtures of flavors and Signature Cuisine\ndishes, we find the Israeli Chef Avi Barak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than 20 years he has been working\nin the best kitchens in the country, and is the owner of the Boutique Catering\n\u201cRimonim\u201d. His recipes stand out for his experience in preparing Israeli and\nMediterranean cuisine. He is also recognized as a specialist in the preparation\nof Kosher dishes, and his banquets adorn many of the best family and social\nevents in the country. However, his drive to fuse new flavors has led him to\nwork in countries such as Colombia, Mexico, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How this path of\nbeing a Chef in Israeli food began?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt all started at my mothers and\ngrandmother’s kitchen. As the son of two working parents, we sometimes had to\npack our lunch. When you are alone in the kitchen, it is fun to invent and use\nyour creativity by making something else with the food that mom left you. I had\na love for cooking since I was a child, it was always fun for me to play with\nfood\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a very young age, he worked as a cook and pizza chef in\nrestaurants. At the age of 18, he enlisted in military service (in Israel it is\nmandatory), and from that experience he remembers how he acquired discipline\nand knowledge to make decisions. Skills that he practices today in his kitchen.\nIn the army, he also met his wife Mirit, with whom he works in the family\nbusiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How is preparing\ndishes with Kosher specifications different from other foods?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKosher food is prepared under the norms\nof the Jewish religion. There are many rules, for example, use only products\nwith Kosher certification, which indicates that the product was prepared under\nconstant supervision of a qualified person. We do not use any derivative of\npork or other animals that do not meet certain characteristics and from the sea,\nwe only use fish with scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Kosher kitchen, we do not mix meat products with dairy\nproducts. That rule is so strict that the same utensils are not used in the\nkitchen. Everything must be separated, so in the industrial kitchen we use\nseparate spaces for each section – milk, meat and parve (which is the term for\nproducts that are neither meat nor milk like vegetables and fish) there are\nmany more rules but that’s for another story\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How has the flavors\nfrom Panama influenced the dishes you prepare?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first culinary experience in Panama\nwas with the \u201cpatacon\u201d,\nthe plantain – a product that is not available in Israel – it was surprising\nfor me, eating a salty and crispy banana. As well as cassava, yams, otoe,\ncoconut and pineapple, as well as sea products that are found in endless\nvariety in Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this made me combine techniques and\nflavors from both worlds, for example a yucca \u201carepa\u201d that Chef Cuquita taught me to make, to\ncombine it with lamb kebab in recau sauce, which for me is Panamanian\nchimichurri or \u201cpatacon\u201d\ntoast, with chicken shawarma and tahini sauce. Combinations that I use a lot in\nmy events\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His taste for the exotic flavor that he\nfound on his travels through the Panamanian interior motivated him to create a\nspicy product “Chunky Caribe\u00f1o” with Aji Chombo, which can be found\nin supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gastronomy of\nYesterday and Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon his arrival in Panama, chef Avi found\na local gastronomy that did not have a marked presence on the street. Restaurants\nwith foreign concepts such as Greek, Italian, Spanish food, among others, stood\nout a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He considers that the current generation\nis the one that is taking local gastronomy to a higher level, using local\nproducts, new techniques and introducing creativity, either Afro-Latino,\nChinese-Latino or Panamanian Creole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most beautiful thing in Panama is\nthat it continues to be a melting pot and the reflection is in the gastronomic\ndiversity that benefits us all, and allows me to leave my mark with the Mediterranean-Panamanian\nfusion, in the different menus of my events, and for being an ambassador of\nPanama in international events that we carry out throughout the continent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy: Chef Avi Barak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the local chefs with the most international experience possessing great versatility in creating the most varied seasons, homemade recipes, mixtures of flavors and Signature Cuisine dishes, we find the Israeli Chef Avi Barak. For more than 20 years he has been working in the best kitchens in the country, and is the owner of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4297,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229\/revisions\/4297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}